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Seven Bite-Sized Operas by Women Pop Up at a London Train Station

Close up on the clock at London's St. Pancras Station
Noel Broda
/
Unsplash
The clock at London's St. Pancras Station

London’s St. Pancras Station transforms for International Women’s Day. Also in this roundup: Ludovico Einaudi goes mega-viral on TikTok, and a biting satire about marketing musicians goes wrong when nobody gets the joke.

1. “Noisenights” are sprouting up around London. They’re crowdfunded events that feature international musicians cooking up mold-breaking shows in cabaret halls, converted warehouses and nightclubs. Performers like cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason and the Her Ensemble are having a blast. And so are the audiences:

2. The wildly popular composer/pianist Ludovico Einaudi is already the highest-streaming classical pianist of all time. And now his piece "Experience" has become a viral TikTok trend, with 7 million users using it as background for their videos. And those have chalked up 15 BILLION views! Here's the original piece:


3. What if someone published a satirical profile of afake classical pianist as a parody of today’s marketing tactics… and nobody got the joke? (And they got all snitty about it?) It happened to pianist/author Sharon Su. Read her response to the outcry about her (Totally invented! Completely fake!) pianist, "Key Playerson."

Off Key

4. To celebrate International Women’s Day on March 8th,  the Royal Opera House is presenting "Lost and Found," seven train-themed micro-operas by women composers, to be performed at London’s magnificent St. Pancras Station.  And because the stories are true anecdotes submitted by travelers, these five-minute operas have great titles, like “Detritus” and “Everything You Carry.” Composer Victoria Bernath worked with librettist Teresa Howard on “Mini Break,” based on a passenger’s story about the panic of losing your passport:

Cathy Fuller is a Host and Producer for CRB.